More than 20 teams, including one of authors, pitted their skills against each other at a school in Dereham to see who would be going through to the next stage of the National Reading Champions Quiz 2023, representing the East of England.

Both our teams were brilliant and their behaviour throughout was exemplary, although neither made it through as the top spot was taken by Thorpe St Andrew School, near Norwich. And we were awarded the Participation Prize, which was well deserved.

The quiz covered a wide range of areas from the world of fictional titles, and it's a really tough event. This year the popular Mr Dilly, from the show Mr Dilly Meets, asked the questions via a livestream.

Teams organiser and our librarian Miss Robinson said: “I’m very proud of our students for throwing themselves into this challenge, showing fabulous teamwork, and demonstrating some excellent book knowledge. They were all impeccably behaved throughout the quiz and lunch afterwards, where they were lucky enough to be able to meet, chat with, and ask the authors to sign their books.

"Well done to our amazing students and reserves. I know already I have some keen quizzers in the making for next year!"

Student Brooke, from Year 9 said: "My favourite bit was representing my school and being proud of where I came from. Our team’s best round was round 8, we watched clips of clues to try and uncover the book title."

Harry, also in Year 9, said: "My favourite part was being able to go to a school and do it in person instead of online. I did the best in the video round. I liked the way Mr Dilly kept it exciting! And we won the participation prize!"

Connor, Year 9, said: "The best round was the magical round. The funniest part was the video round because you had to guess what book it was by clues on screen. I liked how we would work as a team and use everyone’s knowledge."

Miss Robinson added: "Our students bravely put themselves forward to represent the school in what is known to be a very difficult quiz! The quiz questions are based on fictional titles and involve book titles, characters, authors, brain-teasers and story details."